As I write this, we are deep into autumn and winter is coming. It’s the time of year when many of us start to think more about how well our immune system is functioning. We hope to be able to avoid more severe courses of the seasonal viruses that will inevitably circulate during the winter months. This year, of course, we not only have colds and influenza to worry about. We continue to be preoccupied with COVID-19. Those of us in the Western United States may wonder, additionally, whether persistent exposure to wildfire smoke (or avoidance of outdoor activity due to smoky air) over the past two months, during this year’s unprecedented fire season, may have impacted our abilities to deal with infections this winter.
I thought I'd take some time to write out some of my musings on the pandemic, having watched in unfold in Berkeley during the past six months:
Western Medical Research & COVID: A Round-Up of Recent News Articles:
In its approach to COVID-19, the western medical establishment has devoted itself to understanding everything it can about the COVID-19 virus and its transmission at a biochemical level. In the course of treating severely ill COVID patients, researchers and medical professionals are learning more about which medical treatments work and which don’t. Remdesivir, dexamethasone, and monoclonal antibodies all seem to offer some help to COVID patients. Here are a few related news items from the last couple of weeks:
Here’s an interesting article on emerging evidence of the efficacy of monoclonal antibody treatment in combating COVID-19. Monoclonal antibodies was one of the treatments President Trump received in hospital after contracting the virus.
It seems the jury is still out on the effectiveness of remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral medication which showed promise in the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections related to COVID-19. One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Oct 8, 2020, concluded that remdesivir was superior to placebo in shortening the time to recovery in adults hospitalized with COVID-19 and having evidence of lower respiratory tract infection. On the other hand, a preliminary report, released a week later, of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s large scale “Solidarity Clinical Trial” for COVID-19 treatments, suggested that remdesivir had no substantial effect on COVID-19 patients’ mortality.
Public health officials continue to do their best to recommend measures, like masks, social-distancing and handwashing, for slowing the spread. It seems that the ultimate goal of the medical establishment, in its approach to the virus, is the production and dissemination of an effective vaccine. However, it’s unclear how quickly we might really be able to return to “normal life” even after the approval and dissemination of a vaccine, as this interesting New York Times article points out.
Finally, if you need a dose of cautious COVID-related optimism, here's a interview with New York Times Science & Health Reporter Donald McNeil, recorded in the context of the current autumn surge.
How Much Does Western Medicine Consider the Immune System?
Practitioners of holistic/alternative systems of medicine are often quick to point out that, in its search to understand the COVID-19 virus and develop a medical cure and a vaccine, the western medical establishment directs little attention at the body’s innate capacity to resist infection, or to its capacity to successfully fight off the viral infection if a patient is unfortunate enough to contract the virus. That is, the western medical establishment tends to pay a lot less attention to the immune system of the human host in comparison to nature of the pathogen.
What About Our “Collective Immunity” as a Society? Or “Economic Immunity”?
The question of social vulnerability, fortunately, is receiving somewhat more attention from social scientists, public health researchers and journalists. Why have some segments of our society, namely Black, Latino, Native and poor and front-line worker communities, been so disproportionately affected by COVID in comparison to White & affluent folks? At this point, in late 2020, evidence also is also emerging that non-COVID-related death rates among people of color have also increased disproportionately, in relation to white or to total population, this year. You don’t have to search far for analyses of these trends: Here’s one article from Brookings. Here’s another from NPR.
Why has the pandemic had such a devastating effect on our economic systems, with some segments of the economy and workers being much more hard-hit than others?
In addition to taking a holistic approach to augmenting the immunity of our individual bodies, might we not begin to think about a truly inclusive “social immunity,” as we recover and rebuild after this pandemic? Will we institute programs to promote more broad-based economic resilience?
Should We “Fear” the Virus?
President Donald Trump emerged from his own infection with the COVID-19 virus saying, essentially: Don’t fear the virus. It’s no big deal. It’s not worse than the seasonal flu. “Don’t let it disrupt your life.”
Now, I’m going to assume most people reading this will see this merely as part of the ongoing stream of irresponsible, callous and narcissistic gestures that masquerade as leadership from this administration. It is regrettable that this president, who was flown to Walter Reed Hospital in a private helicopter and received every available cutting edge medical therapy, failed to express empathy for the thousands of families who have suffered & lost loved ones to COVID, none of whom had access to the health care services that he did. It is also regrettable that he perpetuated a narrative of toughness and machismo, based on lies and mistruths.
An Epidemic of Fear?
Interestingly, during these pandemic months, I have also occasionally heard this line: “Don’t fear the virus,” coming from some folks of the holistic/alternative health community. Some segments of the holistic health community have tended to downplay concerns about COVID-19, saying something like, “What we are really facing is an epidemic of fear.” We shouldn’t let fear control us. We should understand that, if we tend to our individual health, our immune systems can be strong enough, tough enough, to “handle” this virus.
On one hand, I resonate with the spirit of this assertion. There truly is a lot we can do to improve our bodies’ capacities to fight off, or process, viral infection (from exercise, to sleep and rest, to eating good foods, to spending time outdoors, to getting acupuncture treatments, to using herbal medicine to fine-tune our body’s physiological function, etc.) See, for example, my article from March 2020, Staying Healthy (and Sane) During the Pandemic. Also, I can acknowledge the subtle & not-so-subtle effects of daily anxiety about the virus in myself and my family, like how hard & scary it becomes to leave the house, and how unnatural human contact feels, after sheltering in place for several weeks at a time.
On the other hand, I feel uncomfortable with this “epidemic of fear” rhetoric. Taken to an extreme, it can make people feel embarrassed and ashamed about taking precautions that are actually life-saveing, like wearing masks, social-distancing, etc. We are not all equally equipped to “handle” this virus. Some of us have pre-existing conditions. Some of us are in high-risk categories. Some of us live with and care for elderly and sick family and community members. The inequities in living conditions and access to health care are deep and multi-generational. It’s just not appropriate for anyone to dictate, or critique, someone else’s response to this virus.
Perhaps some of the best outcomes that we can hope for, once we get on the other side of this pandemic, are, first, that we grieve our losses and the shortcomings of our public responses to the virus, including the lack of national leadership on issues related to the pandemic. Then, perhaps we will learn more about our vulnerabilities as a society, and enact policies and programs, build community networks and organizations, to better equalize the risks we face and support the most vulnerable in our society. Perhaps we can improve our “immune health” collectively, not just individually.
A first step for this moment is to VOTE in the November 2020 election. :-)
